The Verkhovna Rada Adopted a Law on Digital Platforms: Who Will Be Affected by the New Taxation

The Verkhovna Rada adopted in full draft law No. 15111-d on the taxation of income that Ukrainians receive through digital platforms. 241 members of parliament voted for the document. This concerns services through which people regularly earn money perform orders, provide services, work through marketplaces or digital platforms. The law is intended to simplify the taxation of such income and bring part of self-employed citizens out of the shadow economy.

Time for Action looked into what exactly the law changes, who it concerns, and why so many disputes arose around it. The main change is that the tax should be withheld not by the person themselves, but by the platform. That is, the user will not need to register separately, submit reports, or independently administer payment. The platform will become a tax agent and will automatically withhold tax from income. The draft law proposes a rate of 5% instead of the current general rate of 18%. This is important for those who earn small or unstable amounts through digital services and do not want or are unable to go through a complicated tax procedure. It is separately stated that one-time sales of personal belongings should not be taxed if income does not exceed 2,000 euros per year. This is one of the key details, because the law was often mistakenly called an “OLX tax.” The revised text contains no special accounts, no access to banking secrecy, and no direct focus on the sale of used items. Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Legal Policy Yefrem Lashchuk emphasized that the document does not concern classified advertising boards.

“The draft does not concern classified advertising boards at all, such as Avizo or OLX, but focuses specifically on services, such as Uber, Bolt, Kabanchik, Glovo, and others. The name ‘OLX tax,’ which some media outlets and political forces have given to the draft law, is a fake name that does not reflect the purpose of the draft.”, – Lashchuk believes.

For the state, this law means an attempt to legalize a large segment of digital employment. According to estimates, its implementation could give official status to 300,000–400,000 self-employed citizens. Such people will be able to have legally confirmed income, which is important for loans, mortgages, and other financial services. Coordinator of the Economic Expert Platform Oleh Hetman explains this precisely as legalization of income without excessive bureaucracy.

“This is positive for these people. Their income will be taxed without any complications for them — without registration and without any reports. Digital platforms will do all of this, and accordingly they will have legal income. They will be able to take out mortgages, loans, or anything else. So this will legalize their income and their activity”, — Hetman says.

For the budget, the expected effect is also significant. According to estimates, additional revenues could amount to UAH 12–14 billion per year. During martial law and for three years after its end, an additional tax of 10% may apply, after which the rate should decrease to 5%. The law also has an international dimension. According to MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak, its adoption was one of the requirements of the International Monetary Fund. MP Danylo Hetmantsev links the document to European assistance of 90 billion euros.

“This law is tied to 90 billion euros, without which there will be no future for the country. This law is needed so that everyone can be confident about their taxes. So that in the future there is no situation where someone has to administer taxes at the general rate and comes after this money for every sock you once sold”, – Danylo Hetmantsev stated.

For digital business, the law may become a signal of predictability. Executive Director of Diia.City United Nataliia Mykolska believes that clear rules are important for investors assessing the Ukrainian market.

“The adoption of No. 15111-d is exactly the response from the state that the market has been waiting for for years: the draft law establishes clear rules, makes it possible to plan long-term, and creates equal conditions for all players”, – Mykolska says.

According to her, this concerns not only large international platforms. Smaller digital companies also receive an argument for investors the rules of operation become clearer, and the market becomes more formalized. At the same time, the main question now is how the law will work in practice. It is important that the system does not create confusion between regular earnings through a platform and ordinary sales of personal belongings. It is also necessary that administration truly remains simple for people and does not turn into new bureaucratic pressure. The law will not start working immediately. According to Zhelezniak, formally this may happen no earlier than January 2027, but the actual launch of the system, taking into account the signing of memoranda and the setup of data exchange, may shift closer to 2028.

Ukraine is introducing new rules for digital employment. The law should make income through platforms legal, easier to tax, and clearer for the state, business, and users themselves. But its success will depend on how clearly regular earnings are separated from everyday personal sales and whether platforms will truly be able to take over administration without excessive burden on people.